


Playing With Fire

by KDblack



Series: KakaVege Week 2021 [4]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Cooking, Cooking Lessons, Gen, M/M, Multi, Offscreen Animal Death, Vegeta is Bad at Feelings (Dragon Ball), dinosaurs are delicious, kakavegeweek2021
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 09:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30103599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KDblack/pseuds/KDblack
Summary: “What are you doing, Kakarot?”“Hey, Vegeta!” The idiot smiles and waltzes into Bulma’s kitchen as if he belongs there, a decent-sized dinosaur slung over his shoulder. “Chi-Chi’s visitin’ her dad, so Gohan and I are in charge of dinner. Bulma said I could use her oven.”Vegeta curls his lip, the better to disguise the sudden flare of want. He’s not sure what it set it off, the sight of meat or the bright flush on Kakarot’s sun-browned cheeks.(Kakavege Week 2021 - Day 4: Cooking Together)
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Son Goku/Vegeta (Dragon Ball)
Series: KakaVege Week 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2209920
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21
Collections: Kakavege Week





	Playing With Fire

Vegeta doesn’t really know how to cook. Why would he? There was no time for such nonsense in the Frieza Force. There were never enough rations for one Saiyan, let alone three, so he ate whatever he could find, usually raw. Nothing was off limits. Even so, he became familiar with the slow pain of starvation.

Kakarot has never gone hungry. Vegeta can see it in the width of his shoulders, the careless way he holds himself, the unspoken certainty of an apex predator. Someone who knows he can take care of himself, who doesn’t fear what the world has in store for him. Even after everything – Frieza, Cell, Buu, and all that followed – Kakarot still believes that he can handle anything the universe throws at him. 

Sometimes, that certainty makes Vegeta believe, too. Most of the time, however, it just drives Vegeta up the wall. Case in point.

“What are you doing, Kakarot?”

“Hey, Vegeta!” The idiot smiles and waltzes into Bulma’s kitchen as if he belongs there, a decent-sized dinosaur slung over his shoulder. “Chi-Chi’s visitin’ her dad, so Gohan and I are in charge of dinner. Bulma said I could use her oven.”

Vegeta curls his lip, the better to disguise the sudden flare of want. He’s not sure what it set it off, the sight of meat or the bright flush on Kakarot’s sun-browned cheeks. “Don’t you have one at home?”

“An oven? Sure. But Gohan’s usin’ it.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I mean, if the oven’s full, ya can’t put anythin’ else in,” Kakarot says, fumbling with the oven dis-play. “’Sides, dino and fish gotta be cooked at different temperatures.”

Vegeta drifts closer despite himself, examining what, exactly, the idiot is doing. He hates to admit it, but the kitchen is largely still a mystery to him, mostly because it’s also a mystery to Bulma. The whole family survives on take-out and whatever concoctions Bulma’s mother conjures up. Vegeta isn’t comfortable enough around Bulma’s parents to watch them at work. Kakarot is another matter. “You’re just going to shove it in and burn it?”

“What? No! If the meat burns, it tastes awful. I’m just gonna sear it a little.”

“That’s the same thing, Kakarot.”

“No, it isn’t. I know ‘cause Chi-Chi explained it to me.”

An opportunity. “Then I’m sure you’ll have no trouble repeating that explanation.”

Kakarot glances sideways at him, arms covered in drying blood, lips quirked upward in a smile that makes Vegeta bristle automatically. “Ya know, if ya wanted to cook with me, ya could’ve just asked.”

Vegeta growls, low in his throat. “Don’t test me, Kakarot.”

“Sure thing.” One more stupidly bright grin and Kakarot turns back to his catch and the ridiculously large pot he is trying to force it into. “Hmm. Might need some help makin’ this fit.”

“Why does it all need to go in one pot? Bulma has–” Vegeta glances into the cupboard and raises his eyebrows. “–many pots.”

Kakarot’s whole face lights up. “Now there’s an idea!”

What follows should be unpleasantly familiar for a variety of reasons: the spray of cooling blood, the crunch of bone beneath fists, the scrape of organs against Vegeta’s ungloved hands. It isn’t, though, because Kakarot was never there before, and Kakarot has a way of making things better. 

Sometimes Vegeta hates that about him. Most of the time, however, it just makes something stiff amd cold in his chest ache, an old wound healing at last.

Bulma isn’t happy about the blood all over the kitchen. Vegeta doesn’t know where she gets off trying to scold them when she tracks motor oil everywhere.

“At least hold your little cook-outs outside!”

“Fine,” Kakarot says, hands raised in a mockery of defence. “We’ll do that next time! Promise!”

Vegeta huffs and turns away, but says nothing about there not being a next time. That dinosaur was unexpectedly delicious, after all.


End file.
